


Turn the Ship Around

by AmeliaDarkholme



Series: You Gave Me A Family [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Iron Kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-06 20:32:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19070155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmeliaDarkholme/pseuds/AmeliaDarkholme
Summary: There was only one thing she cared about at the moment.It was her family.Morgan, Peter, Harley and Pepper.





	Turn the Ship Around

**Author's Note:**

> This series will focus mostly on Nebula and her relationships with the other Iron Kids. So most of the stories will be in her POV. But of course, there will be some in other characters' POV. Also, I haven't really thought about the pairings. You guys are welcome to suggest about it :)

“This might a hurt a bit.”

 

“My mechanic arm can’t feel pain.

 

“Huh. That’s great, I guess.”

 

“Why is it a good thing?”

 

“Because I don’t want to hurt you?”

 

“Oh… Well, I have a high pain-tolerance. I’m used to torture.”

 

“We need to work with your conversational skills, sister.”

 

“Why do I – “

 

“Later. For now, hold still for me. I don’t want to make mistakes.”

 

Nebula sat ramrod straight instantly, her programming still failed to translate Harley’s flippancy as something other than a command. If Harley noticed it, he did a great job ignoring her and proceeded on attaching her new arm, working quietly in concentration while Nebula watched. True to his words, it took him only a week to make her new arm. After that first morning when he inspected her arm, he began to work on it relentlessly. He rarely got out of his garage unless Pepper came to drag him to eat. Initially, Nebula felt rather guilty that Harley was spending so much time doing something _for her._ She was worried that Peter and Morgan would hate her for stealing Harley from them. After all, he was _their_ brother first. But both Peter and Morgan proved they really were so much better than she could ever be. With Harley preoccupied, they turned to her as if expecting her to give them suggestions on how they should spend their time together.

 

Nebula was hesitant at first, not knowing what kind of activities would be suitable for them, especially for Morgan. For Peter, and maybe Harley, it was easier. She could always show them some fighting moves, train them to be the next protector of the world. Sure, she would not let Morgan grow up without some kind of proper training on self-defence. But she didn’t think Pepper would appreciate Nebula teaching her baby to poke someone’s eyes out – the most effective skill to learn for a little kid, in Nebula’s opinion. In the end, Nebula suggested they played the triangle-flip game. Morgan, who was familiar with the game because she and Tony and Nebula used to play it from time to time, agreed to it immediately. She spoke animatedly when she explained to Peter how to play the game, as she rummaged through her things for her triangles.

 

Peter quickly got the hang of it, although with his powers, it wasn’t exactly surprising that he would. Both him and Nebula generously let Morgan won, which made the girl laughed in genuine glee every time she ‘defeated’ them. Nebula noticed though, the girl was getting better and better every single time she played. But before the Luphomoid could make further observation, Morgan declared that she was tired and that she wanted to watch Nebula played against Peter. It started out as a rather friendly game. However, Nebula was Nebula, and her competitive nature wouldn’t allow her to lose. She was rather surprised to find Peter stepping up his game and tried his best to give Nebula a decent competition. In the end, she won a total of fifteen times to Peter’s fourteen. She would never admit it, but she was rather disappointed when Pepper came to get them all to eat. But then Peter offered to teach her how to play other human games, and Nebula agreed to it almost immediately.

 

Again though. Not that she would admit it out loud.

 

But she really did enjoy that game of basketball Peter showed her.

 

She was _so_ going to teach the Guardians how to play it, just so she could beat Quill at it.

 

“And we’re done,” Harley announced, snapping Nebula out of her reverie. There was a proud smile on the blond’s face as he nodded his head at Nebula’s new arm, wordlessly telling her to test it out.

 

Nebula clenched and unclenched her hand a few times before she moved to stretching out her arm. There was a sense of giddiness when she felt how _different_ her new arm was. Her old arm, the one that Thanos gave her, was very uncomfortable. It was like a heavy weight hanging by her shoulder, and even after all those years she had it, the arm didn’t move as easily as she would have liked it. Nebula had her suspicions that Thanos intentionally had it made poorly to make her suffer. It was probably true anyway, Thanos being the sadistic bastard he was. Nebula then took her knife from her boot and began to flick it around, her hand moving faster than she was used to. Not only it moved more easily and faster than her old arm, Harley had made her new arm the same colour as her real arm. If she wasn’t looking at it closely, she could almost believe it was her old, _old_ arm – way before Thanos had cut her up into pieces and had her rebuilt. Nebula had no idea how long she’d spent testing out her arm, until she caught the sight of a grinning Harley from the corner of her eye.

 

“I take it you like the arm then,” Harley said, a hint of Stark’s brand of cockiness in his voice. He had turned around to tidy up all the tools that littered his desk.

 

“It’s…adequate,” Nebula said, an unfamiliar feeling of mischief filled her chest as she watched Harley whipped around, eyes wide in offense.

 

“Adequate? _Adequate?_ How dare – “ Harley trailed off, narrowing his blue eyes at Nebula, who had to fight hard the urge to lift the corner of her lips. The blond seemed to understand what just happened, and let out a soft chuckle. “Well played, Nebs. Well played. You got me.”

 

Nebula shrugged, trying all her might to keep a straight face. “It’s really good, Harley. Much better than my old arm. Thank you.”

 

“Don’t mention it. I made you a promise, remember?” the blond replied, grinning. “I told you, we’re family now.”

 

Her heart nearly burst with the warmth she felt, and for the first time ever, Nebula _smiled._

 

“Yes, you’re right,” the Luphomoid said softly, feeling her smile widened when she saw that a genuine smile, not a grin or a smirk, had taken over Harley’s feature. “We _are_ a family.”

* * *

 

Nebula hated it whenever Quill would talk nonstop for almost three hours straight. Sometimes, when she was in a horrible mood, she would literally shut him up with her hand, holding Quill’s jaw together in a threatening manner to make sure he got the message into his thick skull. It was something she and Gamora had in common. Her sister hated mindless chatters too, which made her wondering more often than not _how_ in the world Gamora had fallen for the idiot. But that was Gamora. She always was very soft deep down, even after all those years growing up with Thanos. Nebula used to envy her sister for that, among all the other things that had led to their rivalry. She envied how after everything, Gamora _still_ managed to keep her heart in a good place.

 

But that was six years ago.

 

Nebula had grown a lot since then, and she’d like to think that she’d changed for the better.

 

She really believed she did.

 

If not, she doubted she’d be able to stand Peter talking her ear off through out dinner.

 

“…then I was like, ‘ _the_ Harley Keener? The same person who’s practically a legend among all the SI interns?’ He’s very popoular among us interns, you see. Because, he’s the very first intern that works closely with Tony.”

 

“Get to the point, Parker, _jeez_! _”_

 

“Okay, okay! Anyway, do you know what this _jerk_ said to me? He said, and I quote, ‘the one and only, darling.’ _Darling._ That’s what he said. Complete with the Southern-drawl that made at least, three other female interns around us _swooned._ ”

 

Although Nebula could hardly understand what Peter was talking about, she still failed in reigning in her smile when everyone laughed. Morgan’s laughter was especially infectious, even if Nebula knew that Morgan was just as clueless as she was. She ate her dinner quietly as she watched Peter continued on his story about the first time he met Harley, with the blond providing commentaries here and there. As a Luphomoid who was more machine than a living being, Nebula actually didn’t really need to eat so often. But she really enjoyed dinner time with her family, because it was the only time that all of them would gather without disturbance, spending some quality time together. Twice they were joined by Rhodes and Happy, the former coming with ‘real, Italian pasta’ from his latest mission while the latter brought some weird drink called Butterbeer that all the kids were very excited about. Nebula was expecting Pepper to chide Happy for giving Morgan an alcoholic drink. But it turned out the drink was not alcoholic at all. It tasted really weird for Nebula, but she quite liked it.

 

She learned a lot about her new family during these dinners, a lot more than what she knew about the Guardians, whom she’d known far longer. She’d known how Pepper used to be Tony’s personal assisstant before she became CEO of SI. She’d also known how Rhodes was Tony’s best and oldest friend, and how Happy started out as Tony’s personal chauffer before becoming his best friend too. But the boys though, even though Tony spoke highly of them in the five years they were Snapped, she only knew the most basic things that Tony told her about them – like how Peter was raised by his uncle and aunt because his parents died when he was a kid, and how Harley’s father was an irresponsible bastard who walked out on his family when Harley was around Morgan’s age. In the two weeks she stayed with her new family, she made an effort to get to know more about Peter and Harley, and when both boys asked about her in return, it took Nebula only ten seconds of hesitation before she answered them. It was quite the progress, and her heart always bloomed in an unfamiliar sense of happines whenever she saw the pride in Pepper’s eyes.

 

Nebula found out that Peter and Harley had actually known each other before the whole thing with Thanos. Harley, who had known Tony since he was only eleven, was one of the first ‘interns’ that Tony hired. The billionaire knew how tight money was for Harley and his family, but he also knew that if Tony just straight up offered him money, Harley would refuse. So, in a gesture that was so typical of Tony Stark, Tony told Harley that if he agreed to work for SI once he graduated from school, he’d pay for all of Harley’s education fee. Nebula had no idea about the system for Earth’s education, but she could imagine that Tony had paid for _everything_. Harley agreed, of course. But Harley being Harley, had started on inventing stuffs that he thought would benefit the lives of many people. He was twelve when he showed his first invention to Tony, and it was only several months later when Tony had them mass-produced and then sold world-wide.

 

Ever since then, Tony had Harley invented many things and then sold them under the SI brand. That was around the same time Tony began to hire more interns, all of them _much_ older than Harley, to form a team that worked _for_ the blond genius. Much to Harley’s utmost surprise and annoyance, Tony gave _ninety_ percent of the earnings to Harley, who tried to refuse but ended up unsuccesful. By the time Harley was fourteen, he’d become one of the richest teenagers in America, though he tried to keep a low-profile about it because he didn’t want too much attention on his family. According to Peter, Harley finished ‘high school’ – a level in Earth’s education that was considered as the absolute _worst_ – when he was only fifteen, three years sooner than what was normal. It was a couple years later when Peter met Harley, when Tony brought him in to help with the whole Sokovia Accords thing under the pretense of hiring another intern. However, because Peter wasn’t exactly an intern the way Harley’s team was, they never really interracted with one another.

 

Then the Decimation happened, and when they met again five years later, everything had changed.

 

“Hey, Peter?” Pepper said, interrupting the brunet in the middle of his story about something funny his best friend Ned Leeds just told him.

 

“Yes, Pepper?” came the reply. Nebula noted that apparently, it took six months for Peter to stop calling Pepper as ‘Miss Potts’.

 

“May just called me. She asked when were you coming home.”

 

The grin on Peter’s face dropped as he stole a glance at Harley, who suddenly found his mashed potatoes to be incredibly interesting. It was quite sometime when Peter finally answered Pepper, speaking carefully to avoid saying the wrong thing. “I’ll leave two days after Nebula leaves. But I won’t go back to Queens immediately.”

 

Pepper raised an eyebrow in an interrogating manner, and for a split second, Nebula almost saw Gamora. “Oh? Where are you going then? Do you need Happy to take you somewhere?”

 

Peter shook his head as he offered a polite smile, something that he hadn’t done since the last time Nebula saw him. “Ah, no. We’re going to Rose Hill, so I guess Harley can help us get there ourselves.”

 

If possible, Pepper’s eyebrow rose higher. “ _Rose Hill_? Why do you two want to go to all the way to Tennessee so suddenly? Is there something you’re not telling me?”

 

“It’s my sister,” Harley answered before Peter could, finally making a sound after going all mute since Pepper first spoke to Peter. “Apparently there are some stuffs of our mother that she still has but wants to get rid off. She asked me to come look at them, just in case I want to keep anything.”

 

“Ah, I see,” Pepper said, a look of grim understanding on her face. “But, why does Peter – “

 

“I come for moral support,” Peter explained firmly, flashing Harley a supportive look that the blond replied with a grateful smile.

 

Pepper nodded, sharing a look with Nebula that was both sad and proud. It was understandable. One of the first things Nebula learned about Harley, other than his brilliant achievements, was his relationship with his sister, Eleanor. When Harley got Snapped with half of the universe, little Eleanor who was only thirteen was left alone with their depressed mother, who had a horrible habit of drinking every alcoholic substance she could get her hands on. One day, Mrs Keener had one too many drinks just before she was supposed to come to Eleanor’s middle school graduation, and she was much too drunk to be able avoid the truck that was headed toward her car. She died on impact, leaving Eleanor an orphan all alone with her big brother’s unlimited money as the only help she could have. Tony, who had become her emergency contact since Harley got Snapped, immediately  arranged for her to be taken care of by the most decent family he could find. But it wasn’t as simple as that. Even with her loving adoptive family raising her, and Tony’s reassurance that Eleanor would always have access to Harley’s money even with her brother gone, it didn’t change the fact that she’d lost _everyone._

 

When Harley arrived at the porch of her adoptive parents’ house just hours after he returned, still wearing the Stark labcoat he was wearing when he disappeared in the middle of his work, Eleanor screamed at him for two hours straight before she cried her eyes out, face pressed against his chest.

 

Five years had passed since Harley was Snapped. She was thirteen when he last saw her. As he held her tightly in his arms, burying his face in her hair, Harley realised that she was exactly the same age as he was. _Eighteen._ Oh, Harley tried to ignore it. He tried to close his eyes toward all the changes around him. He tried to forget that his mother had died not long after the Decimation because his disappearance had left her broken. But it wasn’t enough. Five years was a long time for Eleanor to grow up and get used to a life where Harley didn’t exist. At least, that was what Harley believed whenever he came to visit Eleanor and the girl refused to see him. In the end, Harley agreed to Eleanor’s request that he better not visit her too often. It was why Harley had become a permanent resident in the cabin. This happened just a month before Nebula came, so she had no idea what really happened. But judging from the vicious scowl on Peter’s face as he told the story to Nebula, Peter who always seemed to be incapable of hatred, she could tell that Eleanor’s request broke Harley’s heart. For some reason, the thought that Harley was going to visit that _horrible_ child, even with Peter by his side, was making Nebula restless. True, she understood that loneliness could push someone into doing something so horrible. But still. Nebula felt protective of the blond, worried that Eleanor would destroy whatever left of Harley’s heart.

 

Because, like Tony, underneath all that cocky bravado, Harley was even more vulnerable than Peter.

 

Before Nebula could fully comprehend what she was about to do, she’d opened her mouth and said, “I can come with you, if you want.”

 

“Me too!” Morgan yelled, nodding her head in a conviction that made her seemed older than her actual age. “I want to tell Smelly-Ellie off for making you sad, Harley.”

 

“Morgan, no,” Pepper chastised her daughter, although there was a small smile on her face. “Firstly, you don’t call people that. That’s not very nice.”

 

“But she’s not nice, Mummy!” Morgan protested, rolling her eyes the way Tony ofted did. “She made Harley sad. No one is allowed to make _my_ brother sad. Not even her.”

 

“Secondly,” Pepper continued, as if Morgan hadn’t interrupted her. “If you go with Harley and Peter, then who’s going to accompany me?”

 

Morgan fell silent, her forehead scrunching up as she considered her mother’s words. Awhile later, she sighed dramatically as she nodded her head. “Fine. I’ll stay here with you, Mum. But _Nebby_ goes so she can tell Smelly-Ellie off.”

 

“I’ll be fine, princess,” Harley chuckled, reaching toward Morgan to ruffle her hair affectionately. “Thank you for offering to come with me, but Peter’s more than enough. Both you and Nebula don’t have to go, really.”

 

“Are you sure?” Nebula asked. “I won’t do anything to her, I promise. I’ll be your…moral support.”

 

“I’m sure,” the blond said with a smile. “But thanks for offering, _sis._ ”

 

“Very well, _brother,_ ” the Luphomoid replied, earning a grin from Harley. If she noticed the way his eyes shone a little bit with tears, she pretended she didn’t see it.

 

“Besides,” Harley continued, his mood seemed much lighter than before. “I already have Spiderman with me. I think one hero is more than enough to keep me out of trouble.”

 

“Don’t worry, Keener. I’ll make sure your ass is safe and sound until I get you back here,” Peter quipped, which made everyone laughed again, effectively changing the mood for the better.

 

And this time, Nebula joined in the laughter.

* * *

 

“You promise to visit us again, right?”

 

“Yes, Morgan. I promise. And next time, it won’t take six months.”

 

“Three months, okay? You’ll come when Peter comes for Christmas.”

 

“I will. I promise I’ll come exactly on the same day as Peter.”

 

It was Nebula’s last day. The Guardians were going to come any moment to take her away on another journey to find Gamora. Nebula had spent the last thirty minutes trying to convince Morgan to let go of her deceptively strong hold from around her neck. For someone so small and seemingly vulnerable, Morgan was quite strong for a mortal her age. It took Harley promising her a brand new potato gun for the girl to finally let go of Nebula. Even then, she kept on making sure that Nebula remembered to come as soon as possible. By the time Quill’s ship was lowering itself onto the ground, Morgan was already sitting on Harley’s shoulders, burying her face grumpily into his hair even as she kept watching the ship in wary. When the ship landed, the hatch was opened to reveal a grinning Mantis, Nebula turned her attention one last time to her little family.

 

“I guess I’ll be going now,” she said softly. She hesitantly opened her arms for the unfamiliar gesture of hugging. It still surprised her when Pepper stepped forward and hugged her, even if she liked it.

 

“Take care, will you?” Pepper said, her kind smile was accompanied by a bit of tears. “Feel free to visit us anytime. You’re always welcome here.”

 

“Thank you. I promise I’ll come visit soon,” Nebula said before she turned to Peter, who hugged her enthusiastically the way a child would.

 

“See you in December, sis,” Peter said with a beaming smile. “I’ll meet you here at around noon? How does that sound?”

 

“That sounds good,” Nebula agreed. Lowering her voice, she said, “Take care of _our_ brother, won’t you? I’m…worried about him.”

 

If Nebula’s words surprised him, Peter did a great job at hiding it. “Sure. I’ll protect him with my life.”

 

“But don’t get into trouble yourself, Spiderboy,” Nebula chided, rolling her eyes even as she fought the grin that slowly had become familiar to her.

 

“My turn now,” Harley said, moving carefully to hug Nebula, what with the precious cargo sitting rather precariously on his shoulder. “Be safe, will you, sis? Don’t get your hand destroyed again.”

 

“I’ll stay out of trouble if you promise me the same thing,” the Luphomoid said, earning a chuckle from the blond.

 

“Fine. I promise I’ll behave while Peter’s around.”

 

 _“Hey!”_ Peter exclaimed mockingly, to which Harley replied rather immaturely as he stuck his tongue, causing Morgan to giggle.

 

“Good luck with your sister,” Nebula said seriously, and she felt rather guilty at the way Harley’s grin dimmed a bit, even as he nodded his head solemnly.

 

“Thank you. You as well.” It was Nebula’s turn to feel a bit gloom, remembering how she still had to find Gamora. But she pushed the thought away as she focused on Morgan.

 

“See you later, Morgan. I’ll be counting the days till we meet again,” she told the girl, reaching up to ruffle those brown locks.

 

“Bye-bye, Nebby,” Morgan said somberly, blinking her eyes furiously in an effort to stop herself from crying, one of her short arms was waving Nebula goodbye.

 

Waving her own hand to bid her family goodbye, Nebula then made her way onto the ship. She ignored Mantis when she greeted her with her usual dose of childish exuberance, walking right passed her wordlessly toward her usual seat by the window. She didn’t even acknowledge Rocket’s comment about her new arm. As the ship took off the ground, Nebula watched from the window how her little family kept on waving their hands at her departure, and she felt her heart ached as their figures got smaller and smaller, until she could no longer see them. She vaguely registered Quill saying something dumb, obviously in an effort to cheer her up. But she really wasn’t in the mood to insult his serious lack of intelligence. The moment they’d left Earth’s atmosphere, Nebula couldn’t take it anymore and leave the cockpit, heading toward the cabin she’d long claimed as her own. She threw herself on the corner of the cabin, and took out the small piece of plastic-like material from the front of pocket of her jacket.

 

Peter called it a Polaroid picture, taken the day after Harley made her new arm. It was of herself, Morgan, Peter, Harley, and Pepper. They were standing in front of the cabin, and the camera was set to take the picture automatically. Nebula originally refused to accept the picture when Harley gave it to her. But now, as she sat alone in her cabin with the picture in her hand, she was really grateful that the stubborn blond had insisted that she took it. She had no idea how long she spent sitting there staring at the picture, but suddenly her solitude was disturbed when Thor, who had fully recovered to his godly glory, took a seat beside her. It was a very small space, and both of them were rather too big to comfortably fit into the small space. For some reason though, Nebula didn’t find it as annoying as she normally would. She was never really close with Thor in the six months they travelled together. So, it came as a surprise that she didn’t really mind his presence at that moment.

 

“You know,” the God of Thunder began, his eyes set on the picture in Nebula’s hand. “I’d give _anything_ to find a family the way you do. I mean, I do love my people. They were the reason why I didn’t just kill myself that day after I cut Thanos’ head off. But no matter how I appreciated the company of Grunhilde, Korg and Miek in those bleak five years of my life, I never saw them as family. It feels too much like betraying the memories of my family. Of my brother, my mother, and my father. Even if I realised that I wasn’t ever going to replace them.”

 

“That’s the thing, I suppose,” Nebula said, surprising herself that she actually replied. “You already _had_ a family. Meanwhile, even though I care about Gamora, I’ve never really had a family. I didn’t even consider Gamora as my family until it was far too late. With Morgan, Peter, Harley, and Pepper? It’s different. I _feel_ different. I…I’d like to think I’m a better person when I’m with them.”

 

“Then that should be enough, isn’t it?” Thor prompted, an encouraging smile on his face. But Nebula, loath though she was to admit, didn’t understand it.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“That should be enough reason for you to stay, right? _With them._ ”

 

Nebula froze. Thor’s words had shocked her, even though deep down she knew, that he was right. She had been trying to find a reason to stay with her little family. But a part of her, the coward and insecure _idiot_ that feared she wasn’t good enough for the tiniest bit of happiness, tried so hard to find a reason to stay _away_ from her family instead. She hid behind the claims that she was going to find Gamora. But Nebula knew that even if she did find Gamora, it wouldn’t be _her_ Gamora. Just like Thor knew that if he was to find the Loki from the alternate timeline, it wouldn’t be the Loki he knew from the past few years. With a startling realisation, Nebula knew that she’d long given up on the hope of finding her sister. And now, she had foolishly given up on her family to chase something that she knew was impossible. Determination filled her as she gathered herself to stand, her whole being buzzing in excitement at her decision.

 

“I’m going back,” Nebula said firmly, and when she saw the genuine smile on Thor’s face, she knew it mirrored her own smile.

 

“I know you are,” Thor said as he too stood up. “Go get your things while I go talk to _Quail_ to turn the ship around. We need to get you back before little Miss Stark has gone to bed.”

 

“Thor?” Nebula called. Thor had turned around and was already making his way to the cockpit to talk to Quill. At the call of his name, the God of Thunder stopped and turned around.

 

“Yes, Nebula?”

 

“Thank you.”

 

Thor smiled and nodded his head, and continued on his way to the cockpit. Nebula then began to pack all of her things, all of her belonging that she’d left in the ship went to join her things that she hadn’t unpacked yet. She could hear Quill’s voice arguing loudly with Thor, who lazily started to threaten Quill that he’d set the ship on fire if Quill didn’t turn the ship around. Nebula ignored them all though. There was only one thing she cared about at the moment, and it wasn’t Quill or Thor.

 

It was her family.

 

Morgan, Peter, Harley and Pepper.

 

Nebula was coming _home_.


End file.
